Holy Vigoor Emperor
by Synthesis
Summary: Another Ninja Gaiden fic in similar fashion to my last one, set shortly after it. The meeting between the Emperor of Vigoor and Lord Doku. Continued in 'The Final Emperor'


**Ninja Gaiden: The Holy Vigoor Emperor **

_"Die, Hayabusa, die!"_

"Why the hell did this have to happen to me?"

In the Zarkhan Palace of Tairon, capital of the Holy Vigoorian Empire, in the Grand Throne room at the top of the Palace Dome, behind his massive mahogany desk and surrounded by ancient Arab, Asian, and European artwork, he sat.

"Why, why, why?" he mumbled to himself, rubbing his temples through his hair. "I'm not supposed to be here!"

By technicality of law, he was, actually. He was Xtianius III, the last man of the Vigoor Bloodline which reached back hundreds of years to the beginning of organized society in Central Asia. He was only nineteen years old, making him one of the youngest Vigoor Princes to succeed the Emperor.

The fact that his father, the prior Vigoorian Emperor, had past away quite recently was bad enough. Only a few months prior, Emperor Xpianus had lost his fight with Alzheimer's disease, a personal battle that had lasted six grueling years. During those six years, the Vigoorian Parliament had quietly taken over many of his duties, as the Emperor began to forget his own identity. But once the inevitable came, the Parliament gave up its charade. Xtianius' older brother, the heir-apparent, was called from his military service to be coronated by the Order of Vigoorian Monks, as tradition dictated.

Except his brother never arrived at Dworku Monastery.

And then things went from bad to worse.

It didn't take too long for a telegraph (the army still used telegraphs occasionally, despite the fact that they had increased amounts of new equipment like jet aircraft and satellites) to arrive at Tairon, revealing that Xtianius' brother had died, shortly before his father had. The circumstances of his death were particularly unusual: he had been found hacked to pieces, reportedly after a petty fight with a _kunoichi_, or female ninja, of the Mugen Tenshin clan. This was bad for all parties, particularly for the Mugen Tenshin clan itself.

Naturally, there were repercussions: an entire tribe of elite shinobi couldn't stop the entire Vigoorian Imperial Army, with its armored tanks and aircraft, which could very easily be sent to eradicate any traces that the tribe even existed. So, a deal was made: the young kunoichi, a decendant of the Mugen Tenshin leadership, was forced into exile with another, more discreet clan. Her sister, the heir to the Mugen Tenshin school of Ninjitsu, accepted responsibility for the death of the Emperor-to-be, and presented the Vigoorian Parliament with the first formal apology from a Shinobi in the Empire's history.

The event, known only to Parliament and a few other members of the government, became known as _the Kasumi Incident_, after the name of the Kasumi who "took the rap" for Xtianius' brother's death. At the time, he didn't really hold it against any of the shinobi. He and his brother had never been closed.

That was before he realized that, being the only prince left, he was the only candidate left for Emperor.

_It's all her fault! That damn shinobi BITCH! If it weren't for her and her sister, I wouldn't be behind this stupid desk for the rest of my life!_

Xtianius III did not want to be Emperor, and he had made damn sure that all of Parliament, and indeed the entire country, knew this by the time he was sixteen. By his nineteenth birthday, Parliament had expressed that they'd rather, personally, be strung up by meat hooks than allow Xtianius to succeed his father.

But they had to have an Emperor. Tradition demanded that it be a blood relative. And besides, the only other potential candidate was Xtianius' uncle, the older brother of the late Emperor. Xtianius had never met him...supposedly, he had been in line for the throne but had disappeared into the countryside, choosing the live the life of the shinobi, rather than face up to his responsibilities as Emperor, something the young Emperor wished he could do, as much as he despised the Shinobi. Xtianius' father then became monarch. Xtianius suspected that he too was dead.

As usual, when he considered all the strange events, one after another, leading up to his own coronation, he found himself crying at his desk. _I'm not an Emperor, dammit! Any single speaker of Parliament would be a better choice! Why is it me? Why, why, why, WHY?_

He heard footsteps outside the throne room, quickly wiped his tears off with his ceremonial tears, straightened out his appearance as best he could, just before there was a knock at the doors.

"Come in," he announced, pretending to be preoccupied with the documents on his desk.

The heavy doors swung open, temporarily revealing the two Royal guards, armed with assault rifles, who were always posted outside the room. It was Gamov, Special Agent of the Internal Affair Bureau. Xtianius knew him well: Gamov thought he was an effeminate cretin, while he thought Gamov was a paranoid moron. It was not a good relationship.

Gamov came in with an expression on his face that said only one thing. _Under no circumstances, including Hell freezing over, should they have made you Emperor. _That was probably the only thing they agreed on, but that didn't change the fact that they loathed one another.

He looked up, and as commandingly as he could, spoke. "Yes, Gamov?"

"_Your Excellency_," Gamov began sarcastically. Months into Xtianius' rule, Gamov was the only one who still addressed him as he had prior to becoming Emperor: rudely. "Your _associate _has arrived, as you asked. Do you still wish to have an audience with him?"

Xtianius' eyes lit up, and for a moment he forgot his miserable life as head-of-state and how much he hated Gamov. He stood up from his chair and leaned forward over the desk. "He's here? Now? Where is he?"

Gamov frowned. Clearly, he was not happy about this. "He's waiting for you in the Arena Ruins...I thought it would be safest this way."

The Emperor smirked. "For you or for me?"

"For _us_," Gamov hissed. His voice returned to its normal, indifferent tone. "You may wish to hurry...he's not one you'd like to keep waiting."

But Xtianius was already out of his desk. Behind his throne there was a compartment. Inside it were many things that he thought would be good to keep on hand, among them, an old katana left behind by his brother. The sword was an artifact of the Vigoor Family. Along with a heavy coat similar to Gamov's, he grabbed it by the sheath.

Pulling the coat on, he turned to Gamov. He despised the veteran of Internal Affairs, but he knew that he needed him anyway. "Well, come on, what are you waiting for?"

Gamov's expression twisted up in annoyance. "If you think I'm coming with you," he mumbled under his breath. "You are a fool."

Xtianius smirked. "_As your Emperor, I _order _you to come with me_."

Gamov grit his teeth. Xtianius knew he wasn't particularly intelligent, but he was smart enough to realize that Gamov only had two choices: obey him, or disobey, an act of treason against Emperor and State. Gamov's career had been slowly built up over decades of dedicated service: he wasn't going to let some brat like Xtianius III ruin it over this.

The older man sighed. "You know that sword isn't going to do you any good. To _him_, it's an oversized penknife."

_"Ah, young Xtianius.__ I trust that you are well."_

The deep voice nearly caused the Emperor to soil himself, as he carefully let himself down from the stone walls from the arena. It wasn't even hostile: it was merely a very deep, very slow voice, not quite human but possessing a human quality, as though it had been human at some time. Probably most disturbing was the strange echoing effect it possessed, something that couldn't be explained unless one saw where the voice was coming from.

Xtianius reached the arena floor before the older Gamov, grasping his katana in his left hand. Gamov was right...to _him_, it was harmless. He hadn't realized it before, as this was the first good look he had ever gotten at his _associate_.

Five meters away, in the center of the arena, stood the gigantic armored body of Doku, Lord of Greater Fiends.

Once, more than a century, he had been a Japanese _shogun_, or warrior general. During the long period of the feudal era, Doku had led his near-invincible armies across the nation. For forty years, he swept through the island nation with all the subtlety of a tsunami, leaving death and destruction in his wake. He was responsible for a short but violent Dark Age that nearly consumed Japan, and an estimated half-a-million innocent people had perished during his wars. From the time he assumed the role of Shogun in his mid twenties, Doku's unstoppable military force had never been defeated. If it wasn't for the fact that Doku was less interested in governing and more interested in battles, his _descendants _would probably comprise the Imperial Family of Japan.

Eventually, Doku proved that greatness was not achieved only though war but also in peace. When the Tokugawa Shogunate began to unite the warring states into a single nation, the lands Doku conquered united under the new Imperial government. Doku became a general without a nation, and without an army, and was forced to flee, at the age of sixty-seven, to the continent.

The development of the Fiends, the result of humans with severe genetic mutation, was a phenomenon endemic to the Vigoorian Empire. While scientists would argue that the pattern of development wasn't so simple, it was said only to happen to people of truly wicked nature. To the surprise of the Japanese, Doku did not die in exile in the Empire. He transformed into a Fiend—the first to do so in more than a two hundred years. Ever since then, appearances of Fiends had increased three-hundred percent, even if that only meant a few appearances a year. While Doku's time did not compare to the Middle Ages, where Fiends had run rampant throughout the Vigoorian Empire and had controlled the monarchy, it was still far from normal.

Xtianius III had never met Lord Doku. If there were any substantial rumors that the Emperor had been fraternizing with the lord of the Greater Fiends, the result would shake the non-Fiend, human Parliament to its foundation. The Monarchy itself was nearly benign—legend told that one of Doku's Greater Fiends would become guardian of the Emperor in the times of darkness, some sort of Satanic fiend that supposedly resided in the nether regions.

The Emperor swallowed nervously, still standing behind Doku. "I'm grateful that you came, Lord Doku."

_"If the Holy Vigoor Emperor requests an audience with myself, am I one to deny him that_?" Doku replied, almost humorously. _"Though I'm a bit at a lost as to why you are carrying _that_."_

The young Emperor glanced at the sheathed katana, then at the one that hung from Lord Doku's armored waist. The blade was massive, made to match Doku's huge stature. _Kitetsu_, it was called. Like Doku, the weapon gave the impression of great power. Supposedly, it grew stronger with use, and Xtianius could only imagine how much use it had gotten even before its owner arrived in the Empire.

The small ornamental katana left behind by earlier members of the Vigoor Monarchy slid across the floor of the arena, coming to a stop Doku's feet. Doku raised a single armored foot brought it down, crushing the katana, blade and wall, underneath his foot. When he raised his foot again, the Emperor saw that he had turned a priceless antique to pieces. As long as that foot didn't crush him, personally, he didn't care.

"You're wondering why I called you here," he began, addressing Doku. "As you certainly must know, it is not the Vigoorian Clery, nor the Army and its MSAT division, nor even the Internal Affairs Bureau that has insured that my bloodline retained control over our dominion. For centuries, the Vigoor Family has depended on the support of the Greater Fiends to retain sovereignty over their nation."

As he spoke, he was slowly circling Doku, along the outer edges of the Ancient Arena. "Now, as the new Emperor, and in the tradition of my predecessors, I have a something to ask of you."

Gamov remained along the back wall of the Arena, watching. He would have never believed that the Emperor was brave enough to confront the Lord of the Greater Fiends personally. _He has more gall than I initially expected. But that doesn't change the fact he is completely unsuited to rule this nation. _

"Of course, whether or not you do this for your Emperor is up to you. But I believe by fulfilling my request, we _both _have much to gain."

Lord Doku turned his massive armored head, so that Xtianius could see it before he had reached the opposite point of the Arena. The Emperor visibly flinched, and suddenly understood why Doku's voice sounded as it did. Inside the thick, impenetrable plates of Japanese armor there was not a person—there was simply a vortex of blue-purple vapor, breathing through the armored shell. For a moment, his mind tried to grasp around how such a thing without a distinct form could exist, but that thought was soon replaced as he watched Doku 'exhale', blue vapor escaping from his suit's mouthpiece, before speaking again.

_"You have my attention, my Emperor." _

_Don't let it get to you. Just keep on talking. Remember, you're the Holy Vigoor Emperor. _

But he was Lord Doku, of the Greater Fiends. The Emperor kept circling around him slowly.

Twisting his hands into knots behind his back so they wouldn't keep shaking, he continued. "You know of the Dragon Blade, yes?"

If Lord Doku had possessed a face, Xtianius could imagine it frowning. He was still terrified though.

_"I know of the _legend_, yes."_

The Emperor nodded. "And what if it was real?"

There was a silence. To Xtianius and Gamov, it was a painful one. The Emperor stopped, to Doku's right.

"What would you do, Lord Doku? If the Dragon Blade, in all of its power and might, existed."

Doku didn't respond, and Xtianius III did the bravest thing he had ever done up to that point in his short life.

"Your Emperor asked you a question, _Lord Doku_."

Xtianius half-expected Doku to draw out the Kitetsu and separate his Emperor's head from his Emperor's shoulders. Instead, the armored head with the vaporous center turned towards him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, answering his question with another.

Xtianius smiled, and the old Doku saw a familiar glimmer in the young man's eye. To him, it was a reappearance of a familiar evil, something that was passed down through the Vigoorian blood, no matter how much it diffused with outsides from the rest of Asia and Europe. It was not lust; it was wickedness. Even the youthful, seemingly benign Xtianius III possessed it.

"It exists," Xtianius explained, Doku's head returned to its earlier position. He swallowed nervously. "And I want you to deliver it to me."

Doku's heavy body turned to face the Emperor again. "_Why?"_

"You mean, why should _you_ give it to me. Why shouldn't you, once learning its location, simply go and take it for yourself. After all, wouldn't it be more appropriate this way? The Lord of the Greater Fiends, now with the great fiendish weapon?"

Xtianius turned away, and ran a hand through his long, brown hair. Parliament and his advisors had all pleaded with him to cut it prior to his coronation, arguing that it made him look too childish. He hadn't listened. "I know you will take it, Doku, now that you know it exists. No force on Earth...not even God or Vigoor himself, can stop you. Whether you keep it for yourself, or deliver it to me as I request, is your decision."

He turned back, speaking louder than before. "However, if you do follow my instructions, and deliver the Dragon Blade to me, I can promise you something far more valuable than some _keepsake_." He lowered his head, so that his long bangs hid his eyes. "Give me the Dragon Blade, and I will unleash more Fiends on this land then ever before in our history."

Doku 'glanced' briefly at Gamov, who stood staring, slack-jawed, at his Emperor. He couldn't imagine what was going through the Special Agent's head at the moment, but he decided it was probably quite amusing. "Where is it?"

Xtianius looked up. "It's protected by the _shinobi_. The Hayabusa Clan, in the great forests. They have it."

Upon hearing this, Doku slowly strolled over to the Emperor, his massive armored feet leaving imprints on the Arena floor. Towering over the young man, he reached forward and, with surprising gentleness, touched the Emperor's brown hair with a armored hand. He looked down at him, nodded slightly, and turned away, heading for the Arena exit.

"Special Agent Gamov will assist you as you need may need it, with information or anything else."

Before Gamov objected, Doku's voice broke the relative silence. "He can start...by luring the leader of Hayabusa Clan from his village."

Xtianius turned to him. "Make it so, Gamov."

Gamov's mouth opened in an objection, then suddenly closed. He seemed to have a sort of epiphany, and he smiled in his disturbing fashion and nodded. "Of course, my Emperor," he replied, almost happily.

Xtianius III ignored him. He was happy too. Finally...he was on the way to solving all of his problems. He turned to the Arena wall and began climbing up again, his mind racing.

Yes, they would regret the day they forced him to become Emperor. All of them, all of the Holy Vigoorian Empire. And the shinobi would regret having killed his brother, forcing him to take on this responsibility. Lord Doku would make it happen.

And it didn't matter of Xtianius III, the heirless Holy Emperor, was the land's last.

They should know, never to go against the will of a son of Vigoor.

**Author's Notes:**

Another rushed fanfic, don't worry, I'm still working on my DOA saga…I just got a burst of inspiration when I was beating the stuffing out of the Emperor in _Ninja Gaiden_. This one, like the last, is a little rushed, but I'm quite pleased with it.

As you can see, I'm hinting a sort of conspiracy between Murai, Ayane, the Emperor, and Gamov, which leads up to the events of the game. I might expand on the Emperor's story later, explaining how he transforms into the Angelic Fiend that we see.


End file.
